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Last Friday I ran a workshop on business model innovation with the management of one of the 5 regions of a top Swiss bank. In the break-out session the bankers split into groups and were supposed to work on huge posters to sketch-out the business model of an innovative bank. That is when I realized how uncommon it still is for executives to think visually and use the wall/poster as a visual thinking aid.

They had lively discussions around their table, but it needed some stimulation from my side to get them to use the posters. I insisted on this because I think visualization of business issues is increasingly a requirement to tackle the complex problems of our time.

Understanding not only the issues, but also the links between issues is a must in today's complex world. Yet, this is very difficult to achieve without a visual aid. That is where the wall is very helpful and gives all participants of a meeting a common reference point... When Dave Gray, CEO of XPLANE, was visiting us in Geneva he said one thing that I don't stop quoting:

"the wall is the desk of the future"

Have a glance at some images I put together in a Power Point presentation illustrating the above quote: